Chapter 9

Daryl's body crashed down onto the hard pavement. The second he hit the ground he lost the ability to breathe as intense pain shot through him. He struggled to take in a deep breath through the agony and was finally reward with a few shallow ones. He couldn't speak or think, all he could do was lay there in pain grasping his left shoulder. "Fuck…fuck…fuck," finally he mumbled.

Dayna had heard the thud on the ground and her heart skipped a beat. She pulled the spear out of the head of a now dead walker and ran to the edge of the platform. "Daryl!" she cried out as she saw him writhing on the ground. Dayna dropped the weapon and scurried quickly down the ladder to him.

"What's going on?" bellowed Abraham.

"Daryl fell off the ladder!" she quickly retorted making her way over to him.

His face was pale with pain as he lay on the ground. Dayna's nursing skills instantly kicked in. "Where does it hurt?" she asked him.

"My…fucking… shoulder… I think it's dislocated," Daryl said through clenched teeth. Dayna could see that his right hand was holding onto his left arm.

"Okay, does anything else hurt?" she asked him.

"My hip, but not as bad as the shoulder... I landed on my left side." Daryl rolled slowly onto his back, the pain in his shoulder radiated throughout his entire body.

Dayna looked his shoulder and could clearly see the ball joint of his humerus was out of the socket. She knew he was in a lot of pain and she was going to have to relocate the joint for him. As a nurse she had seen it done multiple times and assisted, but never did it all on her own. It was usually a two person job. "This is what we are going to do," she told him in a quiet steady voice. "I'm going to support you from the back and help you sit up. Keep cradling that arm, it needs support. Then we'll get you to standing and back to the house. I'll put the joint back in there."

"You know how to do that?" asked Sasha.

Dayna was surprised when she heard Sasha speak next to her. She had been so intent on Daryl that she didn't realize that she and Abraham had come down from their platform. "Yes, I do. I used to be an ER nurse," she told them. Dayna placed her arm around Daryl's mid back. "I'm going to support you as you get up, okay?"

"Yeah," he replied quietly.

Dayna spread her legs a bit to give her better leverage. "On three…one…two…three." Together they were able to get him standing and she steadied him as he wobbled.

Daryl could not believe that he had been so stupid and careless to have fallen off that damn ladder. "Fuck me," he thought to himself as he waited to get his bearings. "That's what I get for thinking she has a hot ass.

"Why didn't you help them?" Sasha said to Abraham.

"She looked like she had it under control. She's a nurse." Abraham turned to Dayna. "Why didn't you tell us you were a nurse?"

"No one asked," she said not looking him. Daryl was her main concern. His color was a little better, but his eyes were still full of pain. Dayna's heart went out to him. Dislocated shoulders were extremely painful as his joint, ligaments and tendons were all pulling the wrong way. "Are you able to walk back to the house?" Daryl gritted his teeth and nodded yes.

"Can you guys cover us?" Dayna asked Sasha and Abraham. There was no way she could help Daryl back and look for walkers at the same time.

"Absolutely." Sasha said instantly. "You guys lead and we'll take care of anything else."

Dayna was grateful for their help. It was one less thing to worry about. Daryl's shoulder was bad enough. She kept her hand on his back as they slowly made it back to the house.

The pain was excruciating. Daryl didn't remember anything else ever feeling this painful. He was sure the time he fell and ended up with an arrow in his side was just as bad, but right now all he could do is think about his shoulder. Maybe if he'd stop falling, shit wouldn't keep happening to him. He didn't say a word as they all headed back to the house. It was comforting to feel Dayna's hand on his back during the long walk, because each time he looked at his shoulder, his stomach rolled.

The group made it back to the house safely. Dayna immediately started to try to figure out where was the best place for her to fix Daryl's shoulder. She needed a flat hard surface and once she saw the old kitchen table she knew that was going to be it. She took control like she did with her staff in the emergency room.

"Sasha, go upstairs and bring down two sheets. I may only need one, but I rather have another handy. Grab a small pillow while you are at it too," Sasha ran immediately up the stairs.

Dayna turned to Daryl. "Okay, I'm going to have you lie on the table as soon as Sasha's back, but in the meantime I want you to understand what we are going to do." Daryl nodded that he was listening to her. "I'll need your left shoulder on the edge of the table. I'm going to use the sheet as a counter balance to me. Abraham, you'll need to help me with this."

"Whatever you need," he answered her.

"Daryl, look at me," Dayna said softly. He brought his pain stricken eyes to hers. "I'm not gonna lie, this is gonna hurt like a son of bitch, but once the joint is back in place you'll feel much less pain than you do now.

"You really know how to do this?" he asked, his teeth clenched together in pain. .

"Yes, I do. Trust me." Dayna's confidence came easily through to Daryl. He knew he could trust her with anything. He no longer doubted her at all.

Sasha ran down the stairs with the supplies Dayna had asked her to get. "Okay, take a sheet and fold it so it's about eight inches wide. We need to wrap is around Daryl's chest when he's on the table so that Abraham can hang onto the two ends while I pull Daryl's arm. Understand?" Dayna said trying to explain what she needed.

"Got it!" Sasha quickly had the sheet ready and on the table. Dayna was impressed, some of her nursing staff hadn't been that quick to pick up instructions.

Dayna turned to Daryl again. "It's time for you to get on the table. I'll help you lay down so that you have support for that shoulder. Abraham, can you stand on the other side to help?"

"I can do this," Daryl grumbled. "I'm no damn invalid."

"This is not the time to have an ego. We're doing it my way…no arguments." Dayna stared at Daryl and he knew that he had met his match. He didn't say anything but moved over to the table and sat on it. Dayna made sure that she sheet was in the correct position and motioned for Daryl to lie down. She supported his back with her right hand and his shoulder with her left. She quickly tucked the pillow under his head.

Once he was flat on the table, Daryl closed his eyes as a lightning bolt of pain shot through this shoulder. Gravity was fucking with the joint and he tensed every muscle he had trying to stop it, unfortunately that had made it worse. "Sumbitch!" he mumbled.

"It's almost over Daryl," Dayna whispered in his ear. "I know it's hard, but you're going to have to relax the arm and not fight me." His eyes met hers and she knew that he would try. "Okay, Abraham when I start to pull on his arm, you need to counter the pull so he doesn't go anywhere. Got it?"

"Got it."

Dayna mentally went through the steps she had seen down countless times in her head. She knew she could do this…she had to. Dayna pried off Daryl's right hand from holding onto his left arm. She supported the arm and shoulder with her left. Slowly she moved the arm out so it was at a right angle to his body and it was straight. Dayna looked at Abraham and nodded. She began to apply gentle traction to the arm by pulling on the wrist. Abraham was pulling steadily on the sheet to counteract the traction. Dayna slowly applied more pressure her eyes never leaving Daryl's face. His eyes were closed and only indication that the pain was worse was the tightening of his lips. Dayna was waiting for his muscles to relax so the joint would pop back in. Suddenly she felt it slip back into place and the tension that had flowed throughout Daryl instantly diminished.

Abraham had been watching Dayna the entire time, so he could take his cues from her. He saw the smile start on her face and he knew that the shoulder was back in. They both eased up at the same time.

"It's back in Daryl. How does it feel?" she asked him.

It's sore, but the goddamn pain is mostly gone." Daryl sat up and slowly moved his shoulder. "Yeah, it's a bit tender."

"I knew a couple guys that this happened to. Took them a while to get full use back," Abraham said.

"I'm good," stated Daryl. "Let's get back to it." He stood up and swayed for a second. His body was telling him to rest and his head had him taking out walkers right away.

"No! No way," Dayna said putting her foot down. "You can't use that shoulder for a couple days at least."

Daryl's' eyes narrowed and he was about to argue with her when Dayna interrupted him. "No! Don't even try to argue with me because you won't win. We don't have ice or painkillers for you and with all the stress that joint went under today it is going to swell and be very sore. You'll need to wear sling to support it or chance permanent damage to it. That's not going to happen on my shift…err my watch…shit. It's just not gonna happen, Daryl." Even though Dayna slipped back into hospital mode there for a minute she stood right in front of Daryl not backing down.

Sasha quietly tore the sheet she still held so they could make a sling for Daryl. She didn't dare look at Abraham or she knew he's make her laugh. Not many people stood up to Daryl and Abraham was getting a kick out it she knew.

Daryl sat on the edge of table still holding his arm but not taking his eyes off of Dayna. The corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk. "It that how you treat your patients?" he grumbled.

"Only the stubborn ones," she retorted. Dayna put her hand out and Sasha gave her the makeshift sling. She folded it so it could support Daryl's arm, then she put it on him making sure the knot was secure.

"Thank you," Daryl said softly to her. "I'm sorry I gave you a hard time." He was madder at himself than anything else. This was a careless accident that he had no one to blame but himself.

"You're welcome. I told you whenever you needed a kick in the ass, I'd be more than happy to help. You needed a kick and I helped." Dayna smiled at him, before turning to Sasha. "I'm hungry, let's see what left to eat."

"Good idea. I'm starving too." Sasha and Dayna headed to the kitchen to check their supplies.

Daryl sat down on the sofa and Abraham chose the chair. "So how'd you fall off, dude?"

"You don't wanna know, man. You don't wanna know," Daryl sighed resting his head on the back of the cushions.

A big grin came across Abraham's face. "It was her ass right? You looked at her ass?"

Daryl just bursting out laughing. "You nailed it, man. Took one look and I was a goner…in more than one way." They laughed together for a minute. "It was nice to be able to do that again," Daryl thought to himself. He hadn't laughed being one of the guys in a long time. It made him miss the group inside Alexandria even more. Now that he was sidelined for a bit, he hoped that didn't hurt the people still left inside. He had screwed up and he hated having to tell Rick.